Random wibblings of an insane science fiction fan

 
Boo.

Oh, and before I forget... Happy Halloween, all! To celebrate I did, ah... absolutely nothing. I'm actually mildly annoyed with myself on that point. A couple of friends invited me to drop by some time over the weekend, 'cause they were going to be watching horror movies and stuff, and I got to doing stuff and completely spaced on it until Sunday night, by which time I was tired and didn't feel like going anywhere. Phooey.

I was thinking I might get some trick-or-treaters this year, now that I actually live in a house, but nobody rang the doorbell, probably because I didn't get home from work until after dark, and kids haven't gone trick-or-treating at night since my own grade school days. Ah, well. Guess I'll just have to eat this candy by myself...
posted by Betty at 9:37 PM [0 comments]

 
Yet Another Kitten Update

Well, little Vir Catto had his vet appointment today. He has now been poked, prodded, jabbed, and declared free of evil feline leukemia. So I let him out of quarantine for a few minutes just now and allowed him to toddle around the living room. The pre-existing cats, unsurprisingly, were Not Pleased, but no actual violence ensued, so I'm counting it as a success.
posted by Betty at 8:37 PM [0 comments]

 
Booming and Shaking

I was sitting at my computer Saturday night when the wall next to me suddenly shook, and the metal desk behind me made a rattling noise. "Wow," I said, "That felt different. They must really be doing something major out at the test range." Except it turns out it wasn't a boring, ordinary explosion, after all. It was in fact a much more rare and interesting phenomenon: a small earthquake. Huh. How about that.

As a co-worker of mine put it: "This is why Socorro is safe from terrorist attack. They'd never bother, because no one would notice." And then he pointed out that a house caught on fire once, and people ignored it because it happened to lie in the same direction as the Fire Training Academy, and everybody's used to smoke pouring out of there.

I honestly can't decide whether living in a place where window-rattling explosions and huge, dark plumes of smoke are considered normal enough to be unworthy of notice is kind of cool or just disturbing.
posted by Betty at 4:32 PM [0 comments]

 
Aw, I'm the Boring Guy!

You scored as Capt. Lee Adama (Apollo). You have spent your life trying to life up to and impress your Dad, shame he never seemed to notice. You are a stickler for the rules. But in matters of loyalty and honour you know when they have to be broken. Capt. Lee Adama (Apollo) 63% President Laura Roslin 50% Col. Saul Tigh 44% CPO Galen Tyrol 38% Lt. Sharon Valerii (Boomer) 38% Commander William Adama 31% Lt. Kara Thrace (Starbuck) 31% Tom Zarek 31% Dr Gaius Baltar 25% Number 6 13% What New Battlestar Galactica character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

posted by Betty at 11:39 AM [0 comments]

 
I Beat the Monkey!

Geography Your score: 9 Monkey's score: 2 -- Quite a sufficient job.	History Your score: 10 Monkey's score: 2 -- Nicely done.
Science/Technology Your score: 11 Monkey's score: 2 -- Bravo, you put him to shame.	Random Trivia Your score: 6 Monkey's score: 2 -- Good but not great.

Link: Take the Monkey Challenge
posted by Betty at 12:49 AM [0 comments]

 
Stupid Internet Quizzes Are Trying to Tell Me How to Run My Life Now.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	5.9
Mind:	6.4
Body:	5.8
Spirit:	6.5
Friends/Family:	3.7
Love:	0.8
Finance:	7.7
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Bah. I like not this quiz. It tells me there is "room for improvement" on everything except my finances ('cause I own a house and pay the bills on time, which apparently is an accomplishment these days), and that my love life sucks. What part of "I like being single" is so incomprehensible to people? And, yes, mom, I know I ought to eat more vegetables. Bah, I say.
posted by Betty at 12:48 PM [0 comments]

 
Kitten News

Vir the kitten is now drinking milk out of a saucer! Reluctantly and messily, I admit, but he's doing it. Yay! I'm so proud of him! He's also using the litterbox like a good kitty, and is showing a decided interest in chasing small things that move. He hasn't quite gotten to the "bundle of randomly pouncing kitten energy" stage yet, but I can clearly see that it's just around the corner.

I did have a bad moment when I got up this morning and saw that the door to Kitten World (aka the bathroom) was ajar. Eep! But he was still in there, and seemed fine. He hadn't wandered off and gotten lost in the house, and the other cats hadn't eaten him. But, damn it, he's supposed to be in quarantine until the gets his shots and tests on Monday!
posted by Betty at 11:31 AM [0 comments]

 
I Can't Decide If "Dash" Would Be a Cool Nickname or Not.

Dash You scored 30% Sociability and 52% Sophistication!

There's no denying that you have a certain flair. You don't mind being around others, especially your little brother, the hyphen, but you rarely emerge except when needed. You respond well to those who know how to treat you, but have only contempt for those who don't--you tend to embarass them every chance you get. Your only enemy is the colon--he will sometimes try to move in on your turf.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 16% on Sociability You scored higher than 38% on Sophistication

Link: The Which Punctuation Mark Are You Test written by Gazda on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

posted by Betty at 12:49 PM [0 comments]

 
Book Talk

OK, I said a few days ago that I was going to talk about books, right? So let's talk about books.

I'm currently reading Stephen King's Thinner. It's making me hungry. I find this fact kind of disturbing. I also find it noteworthy that the only thing that's made my suspension of disbelief snap so far was an offhand mention of the protagonist's daughter going off to a Dungeons and Dragons game. OK, sure, gypsy curses that make you lose weight, fine, but a cheerleader playing D&D? Puh-leez! That aside, it's not bad so far, but I'm only on pg. 38.

Most recently completed book was Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora by Philip Hinchcliffe, which, in the grand tradition of Terrance Dicks's Who novelizations, reads like it was written about an hour and a half. And I remembered the plot of that episode being more interesting, somehow. But apparently I have not remembered how to pronounce "Mandragora," which is driving me crazy.

Before that was The Beginning Place by Ursula K. Le Guin, which was really interesting to read. The title seemed vaguely familiar, which led me to think that maybe I'd read it before, sometime in my childhood. And the more I read of it, the more convinced I was that I had, because it felt, eerily, hauntingly familiar. Eventually I encountered a phrase I remembered almost exactly and became certain of it. What's interesting is that I couldn't have been more than about eleven when I first read the thing, but even if I'd forgotten the title and the author and the plot, the experience of reading it is still vividly lodged in my mind, because it was one of the very first books I read that had sex in it, and I found the experience really uncomfortable. Now, the sexual content, as it happens, is very, very mild and not at all explicit, but I think it was the style as much as the content that got to me. Because Le Guin really does write prose that's capable of worming its way down into your hindbrain and doing strange things to your subconscious, and combining that with a sexual undercurrent is a pretty sure way to discomfit an eleven-year-old. (Of course, a few years later I was reading Kurt Vonnegut and Harlan Ellison, so, hey, I got over that pretty quick. But, still.) I could have sworn that I actually failed to finish the book, but some of the stuff I remembered was towards the very end, so if I did abandon it, it must have been with only a few pages to go. My strongest memory is thinking that that book really shouldn't have been in the kids' section... though, thinking back on it now, the problem was that they only had one section to serve everyone from the just-graduated-from-picture-books crowd through the teenage set. (Not that there weren't any inappropriately shelved books in that library. Note to librarians: Not everything Roald Dahl wrote is aimed at kids. Thank you.)

Let that, by the way, serve as an anecdotal refutation to the claim that kids will indiscriminately devour anything they find in front of them without having enough good judgment to know whether it's something they're ready for or not. I've heard it said that kids are their own best censors, and I believe that. If, as a kid, I picked up a book or watched a movie and it had stuff that made me uncomfortable, because it was sexy or gory or whatever, I'd shy away from it. Unless, of course, an adult told me I was too young for it, in which case it became a point of pride to prove that I could handle it. Thus it is that my mother is directly responsible for my actually finishing Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset at the age of about 13, despite the fact that it was a) deeply filthy, and b) not any good. If she hadn't forbade me to read it, I probably would have put it down at about page ten. Ah, well. I turned out OK, anyway. Mostly.

To get back to Le Guin, though, reading The Beginning Place this time was interesting not just for the deja vu experience, but also because it's a really strange book. It doesn't actually make any sense in simple dramatic terms: mysteries are set up that are never followed through on, characters make sudden emotional turns for no obvious reason, etc., etc. Everything is the way it is, and happens the way it happens, as far as I can tell, not because it has internal logic in a story world, but because it's symbolic. I might even go so far as to say allegorical. Now I generally hate that sort of thing: not symbolism or allegory per se, but symbolism and allegory when they trump logic and realism, most definitely. But Le Guin gets away with it and manages (mostly) to get me to come away with the feeling that the symbolic stuff is a level of truth revealed by the story and not one imposed on top of it. If that makes any sense at all. It's bizarre, and fascinating, and kind of maddening. I don't know whether, as an adult, I enjoyed the story all that much, but I am impressed with Le Guin for writing it, if only because I think it takes some pretty nifty chutzpah to believe you can pull a thing like that off. (I will say, though, that overall I prefer the Earthsea books, which manage to work extremely well as a traditional narrative and as a symbolic Jungian sort of thing simultaneously.)
posted by Betty at 8:18 PM [0 comments]

 
Aah, That's Better.

So, I got into work and discovered that one of the air conditioners that cools the computer system I work with was broken. Well, if the AC don't work right, the system has to be shut down lest it overheat and die. And if the system's shut down, there ain't a whole hell of a lot for me to do (and certainly not anything that'd merit me staying at work when I feel like crap).

Thus it is that, despite several heroic but unsuccessful efforts by various people to fix the coolers, I ended up having a sudden, unexpected opportunity to go home early. Which means that I have managed to fulfill my fondest ambitions by lying in bed drinking tea, eating fruit, and watching The West Wing on DVD. (Damned good show, by the way. I liked it instantly.) This was followed by some kitten-cuddling, and is about to be rounded out by a nice, hot bath.

Sometimes, fate is kind.

(And, yeah, I'm pretty sure we'll be back up and running tomorrow. It's not like I'm out of a job or anything.)
posted by Betty at 9:03 PM [0 comments]

 
The Good, The Bad, and the WTF?

Good things:

I solved my disk space problems by the blindingly simple expedient of running the Disk Cleanup utility and letting it compress stuff. I'm back up to 19 gig! Yay!

Vir the kitten is apparently thriving, and is still insanely cute.

I'm enjoying the heck out of my Netflix subscription. Just finished season 3 of South Park, which was really quite consistently funny. Next up: season one of The West Wing, about which I have heard many good things.

Bad things:

I woke up this morning after about three hours of sleep, feeling all crampy and icky, and could not manage to drop off again. Which I guess isn't a bad thing for helping to switch me off night shifts, but cannot possibly be counted as good in any other ways. Part of me is kinda tempted to call in sick to work and make plans to spend the evening in bed drinking herbal tea and reading Doctor Who novelizations and Stephen King, but a) it's not that bad, and b) I have this annoying conviction that if I take a sick day because it's "the wrong time of the month," I'm admitting that my femaleness makes me somehow weak. Which, frankly, in this one area it does, because menstruation sucks. But, y'know, you don't want to admit that sort of thing.

The art of liquid-lapping does not appear to have stuck in Vir-kitten's brain, despite his one moment of success. This is growing increasingly problematic as he becomes harder to bottle-feed, and too big to take in to work with me.

The WTF?

My TV Guide got much bigger. And skinnier. And appears to have even fewer TV listings. Not that I need 'em, given that my TV-watching at the moment consists entirely of DVDs and Battlestar Galactica, but still...
posted by Betty at 10:27 AM [0 comments]

 
I'll Take That in a Cashier's Check, Please.

My blog is worth $7,903.56.
How much is your blog worth?

posted by Betty at 1:59 AM [0 comments]

 
Kitten Joy

He used the litter pan!
posted by Betty at 12:10 AM [0 comments]

 
In Which I, Uh, Update My Blog

Ye gods, is it Friday already? It must be Friday, because I've put in a full work week, but I hadn't realized I'd let most of the week go by without updating this thing.

Um... Well, on the kitten front, Vir is getting a bit better at the food-eating thing. He's actually eating non-blenderized catfood, of, admittedly, an intrinsically mushy nature. Though he keeps wanting to bite the plate for some reason. He's not doing as well on the drinking-liquids front... He keeps looking like he's about to get the hang of lapping stuff, and then goes and dunks his little face in anyway. Sigh. He really does need to grasp this concept, because bottle-feeding him is starting to become problematic. He has strong little legs now, and sharp little claws and teeth, and when he bites at the bottle or tries to knead at my hands while he's drinking, things do not go so well.

What else? Hmm. I was going to go on about the stuff I got done around the house today, but nobody wants to hear about that. I don't even want to hear about that. I did have some book-related thoughts to post, but I think I'll wait until I've actually finished the book in question.

So, um, yeah. That's today's blogging. Thank you, and good night.
posted by Betty at 10:12 PM [0 comments]

 
Mmm, Catfood Shake

It's too soon to really tell, but we may have a winner in the Food to Wean Kittens By competition: Fancy Feast Ocean Whitefish & Tuna mixed with fresh kitten formula and blended into a thick liquid. Personally, I think it smells disgusting, but little Vir apparently does not agree, as he quite willingly -- possibly even enthusiastically -- ate some off of my finger. Getting him to take it from my fingertip seemed like a good idea, as he's always licking at my fingers, anyway, but it did reveal the fact that his teeth are beginning to grow in nicely. Ow.

I then tried to give some to him in a saucer, but he just stuck his face in it and got it up his nose, after which, understandably, he lost his enthusiasm. Still, I'm quite sure this time that there was actual eating going on, even if it was just a couple of mouthfuls.
posted by Betty at 7:36 PM [0 comments]

 
Oh, Canada

It looks like the BBC are going to be releasing the new Doctor Who DVDs in Canada in February. We don't get a US release, of course, because the show hasn't aired here and thus there'd be no presumed market for the discs. Sigh.

Anyway... This seems like it ought to be great news. Canada uses the same region coding as the US, and ordering stuff from Canada is simple enough. Nevertheless, my main reaction is "Aaaaaargh!" Because it now means I have to decide between buying the UK boxed set when it comes out next month, or waiting for the Canadian discs. I'd much rather have the set in Region 1, because while I do have a region-free player, that's the only place I can play R2 discs. No bringing them to friends' houses, no watching them in the bedroom... It's annoying. But I don't want to wait until February. I want them now. I want them so badly I very nearly ordered the bare-bones, no-extras, rushed-into-production UK releases before I talked myself out of it. Because I do want the boxed set, and buying both would be utterly stupid.

Region coding? Worst. Thing. Ever. Grrrrr.
posted by Betty at 6:05 PM [0 comments]

 
Yet Again Still More Kitten Talk

OK, all that exhausting work and worry I've been putting in trying to grow a cat from that tiny scrap of life I found in my driveway is finally starting to pay off. Because Vir-kitty, at one month, is becoming all cute and catlike and fun.

He was seeming increasingly unhappy at living in a box all the time, so I cut a hole in the side of his box-bed, put down some towels on the floor, removed anything dangerous or icky, and converted the bathroom into Kitten World. Vir seems to be enjoying living in Kitten World, and I had this beautiful heartwarming moment earlier when I stopped in to check if he was awake -- he was, curled up in his bed -- then went off to the kitchen to warm him up some milk, and when I came back, he was up and out of the box, and he came toddling up to greet me. Aww! Heart-melting kittenness!

I also had another motivation in letting him roam about a bit... As I think I mentioned earlier, I've been having trouble getting him to take very much milk at a sitting, which has lead to considerable worry about whether he's getting enough nourishment. It occurred to me that a lot of the problem seemed to be that I was taking him out and sitting him on my lap to feed him, and, once the initial hunger pangs had been sated, the interesting world-outside-the-box became far too distracting. I'd hoped letting him crawl around and explore on his own time would make him less likely to want to do so when I was trying to feed him. So far, it does seem to be helping. He's still not drinking half a bottle at a feeding, the way I'd like him to, but he does seem to be eating much longer, and with much less coaxing. He actually seems quite happy to stay settled in my lap now, in fact, which is nice for both of us. Yay!

Still haven't had any more success with the solid food thing... Occasionally, he will lick or mouth at the stuff, but he really doesn't seem at all interested in eating it, and I couldn't get him to lap milk from a saucer even when he was clearly really hungry. And my bright idea of leaving out some moistened Kitten Chow in the hopes that he'd figure out what to do with it eventually didn't work so good, as it proved much more attractive to ants than to kittens. Stupid ants. Ah, well. I'm sure he'll get the hang of it eventually.

And for those who have asked, yes, there will be pictures, but it might take a while. I still don't have a digital camera, and I've still only taken a handful of shots on the disposable I bought.
posted by Betty at 9:44 PM [0 comments]

 
Whoo-Who!

The BBC have just announced a new Doctor Who spinoff show, featuring actor John Barrowman. This development delights me, as there is no doubt in my mind that his character can carry a series, and that this has the potential to be all kinds of fun. On the other hand, it also means one more British show I'm doubtless going to have to track down on my own, because it won't air in the US. Sigh.
posted by Betty at 6:32 PM [0 comments]

 
Huzzah, Times Two!

He ate cat food! Well, OK, "ate" is a strong word. I'm not sure very much actually got inside the kitten, as opposed to being licked, chewed thoughtfully, and falling out of his mouth again. But, still. Progress!
posted by Betty at 2:36 PM [0 comments]

 
Huzzah!

Vir the kitten has now topped one pound! He's very definitely a small cat now! I'm still a bit worried about whether he's eating enough, but you certainly wouldn't know it from the way he's continuing to grow, so I really should relax.

Also, I just got him to lick at some canned food smeared on my fingers. I'm not sure he actually ate any of it, but that's got to be a good sign.
posted by Betty at 6:13 PM [0 comments]

 
Here, Have Some Random Links. It's Been a While Since the Last Batch.

Serenity in 2000 words or less. Very funny condensed version of the movie. (Note: Contains massive spoilers. Trust me, you don't want spoilers for this movie, and even if you think you do, this is not the way you want to get them. If you haven't seen the movie, don't click.)

The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize awards. Lots of goofy scientific fun!

The lyrics to Sesame Street translated into Klingon and back. A work of genius.
posted by Betty at 6:10 PM [0 comments]

 
My Parents Always Told Me I Had It Good.

Easy Your life has been 26% difficult.

Based on your family, money, political context, and personal situation -- during the important years of your development -- it appears your life was EASY. What does this mean? Well, the "difficulty" of your life s a measure of how rough you had it. Relative to the world, you had a pretty good childhood. I'm not saying it was really easy, just that you weren't gnawing on a belt for calories. Still though, it wasn't perfect. I'm not sure what "success" means to you, but whatever it is, you can achieve it. When you do, it'll be that much more impressive. I have a new test! Straight males and gay/bi females, check out my brand new How Low Are Your Sex Standards Test

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 44% on difficult

Link: The How Difficult Is Your Life Test written by chicken_pot_pie on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

posted by Betty at 5:48 PM [0 comments]

 
A Somewhat Late Meme-ish Update

Current clothes: Short-sleeved blue denim shirt unbuttoned over a gray t-shirt. Dark blue jeans. White crew socks. I was wearing black boots, but I took them off.

Current mood: Harried. I wake up -- too darned early -- and want to do nothing more than sit around in my pajamas drinking coffee and surfing the net, but the kitten needs his water bottle heated up, and then he needs his breakfast, but he doesn't drink much, so I have to feed him again before I take my shower. And then I have to go to the store because, among other things, I want to pick up some cat food to try and tempt him onto solids. And I need to do laundry, because somehow I seem to be generating a lot more dirty clothes, with all the formula dribbling and the accidents involving cat pee and the regular changes of cat bedding. And there's bottles and things to wash. And then, of course, he needs to be fed again. And again. And to be usuccessfully enticed towards solids. Again. And weighed and washed and petted and to have his tummy rubbed so he'll poop. And, meanwhile the bills still need to be paid and the trash needs to go out and the floors need vacuuming desperately, and sitting in my PJs surfing the net is looking more attractive all the time, but it'll be time for work soon, and ye gods, it is like having a baby. I'm reminded of all those new mothers who say, "Oh, staying home with the baby will be great! I'll get caught up on the housecleaning and work on my novel." And then, two weeks later, they're all, "What was I thinking?" as they run their fingers through their frazzled hair and stare at you with their crazed, bleary eyes.

Current music: More random playlists. I don't remember what was on the last one, and I'm far too lazy to check.

Current annoyance: Um. See "mood."

Current thing: I've been obsessively playing Spider Solitaire on my PC every time I actually get a few moments to sit down, because I'm really not up to much of anything that's more involved or requires actual brainpower.

Current desktop picture: This beautiful picture of the moon, Venus, and Jupiter over the St. Lawrence River.

Current song in head: For a while, the theme tune to The Sopranos was looping around and driving me crazy, but fortunately it seems to have faded by now, and I'm getting some variety on Brain Radio at last.

Current book: Broken Music by Sting, a book that has previously been mentioned here as the hapless victim of an evil cat attack.

Current video in player: None, since Battlestar Galactica is on mid-season hiatus. Except for that, it's pretty much DVDs or nothing for me these days.

Current DVD in player: It was the last disc of season 1 of The Sopranos, but I've now finished with that and packed it up to send back to Netflix. I was really starting to get into that show by the end of the season. I think I may have to move season 2 up in the queue.

Current refreshment: None. I need some tea. And something to eat.

Current worry: I've been consumed with various obsessive kitten-worries for the last three and a half weeks. Is he eating enough? Is he eating too much? Is his poop the right color? The right consistency? Is he warm enough? Is he... Well, you get the idea. At the moment, it's "is he eating enough?", as he's not consuming nearly the amount of formula my calculations say he should be for his weight. He seems healthy, though, and is gaining weight nicely, so I'm probably worrying over nothing.

Current thought: Arrgh, gotta get something more to eat, and check my e-mail, and put away the laundry, and try feeding the baby again before I go to work... Aw, screw it. I might just make a snack and go watch some South Park.

Labels: currently

posted by Betty at 9:24 PM [0 comments]

 
I Have to Admit, I Haven't Read This. Should I Be Offended?

Touchstone You scored 9 evilness, 18 romance, 18 tragic, and 36 comic!

You are the fool from "As You Like It." Touchstone's name comes from an Elizabethan word that refers to anything that could be used to test the genuineness or value of something else. Touchstone tests the world by making fun of it.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 6% on evilness You scored higher than 2% on romance You scored higher than 8% on tragic You scored higher than 34% on comic

Link: The Shakespeare Character Test written by mandi_g on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

posted by Betty at 6:33 PM [0 comments]

 
'Nother Kitten Update

Well, I talked to the vet's office, and they don't do the first round of shots and the feline leukemia test until six weeks. Which kind of annoys me, as he's supposed to be kept apart from other cats until then, and I'm really not looking forward to having an active six-week-old kitten in quarantine in the bathroom. Anyway, I made an appointment for Nov. 4th, because I was thinking that was my day off that week, but then I realized that a) I got my shifts mixed up, and that's one of the weeks I'm actually working on Friday, and b) getting it done on a Monday would be much better than waiting until Friday. So I think I'm going to call them back and change it. (Note to self: don't make appointments before finishing your morning coffee, 'kay?)
posted by Betty at 4:11 PM [0 comments]

 
Kitten Update

Vir the kitten is now three weeks old! He's still growing like crazy, and he's long since stopped looking like an undistinguished lump of small furry animal and started looking like an extremely tiny cat, except for the fact that his ears aren't quite standing up yet. At this point, he is, in fact, a serious contender for the title of Cutest Thing Ever in the History of Cute. Aww.

He seems to be doing fine and developing quite nicely. He's starting to get to the point where he's taking some interest in his environment: when I'm feeding him, he seems almost as interested in crawling around on my legs and looking around as he does in eating. And he's just started making his first semi-successful attempts to get his legs under him properly and walk. Oh, he's going to be a handful soon!

I've decided, finally, to eliminate his middle-of-the-night feedings. I think he's old enough now to go a few extra hours between meals without it killing him, and if this interrupted sleep keeps up much longer, it's going to kill me. I was going to start last night, actually, but I woke up after about six hours, anyway, so I got up and fed him and then went back to bed. Which is probably actually a better way to do it, easing him into the change gradually. And, speaking of changes in eating habits, in a few more days I'm going to experiment with starting him on solid food. Well, OK, mushy food. Wish me luck!

It's probably also getting to be about time to call the vet again and find out when he can start on his shots and get tested for anything he needs to be tested for before I introduce him to the other kitties. They're really becoming intensely curious about him!
posted by Betty at 7:33 PM [0 comments]

 
Goin' Ape

Yes, today's Cavalcade of Memes continues.

You scored as The Librarian. You're the Librarian! Once a wizard, now an Orang-utan (due to an unfortunate magical accident), you refuse to be turned back for a few reasons: In this form, it's easier to reach the shelves and hold more books; having the strength of five men makes people return their books on time; life's great philosophical questions boil down to "when do I get my next banana?" You say "ook" but are usually understood well enough. The Librarian 56% Lord Havelock Vetinari 50% Carrot Ironfounderson 50% Death 50% Gytha (Nanny) Ogg 44% Commander Samuel Vimes 38% Rincewind 31% Cohen The Barbarian 31% Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax 19% Greebo 6% Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics) created with QuizFarm.com

posted by Betty at 8:10 PM [0 comments]

 
More Memeage

Here's a new "fun with google" meme. Type in "[your name here] needs" and let google tell you what it is you need. Post the top ten, or just the funny ones.

Apparently, I need:

1) a new car seat
2) you
3) to spend a day reading the forums
4) a hand
5) to determine how much of my day and my energy I am willing to spend working
6) to be diagnosed properly
7) to make sure I have a workout buddy
8) to transfer data files to the server
9) a place to live
10) a home


Well, I know the answer to #5, all right, but, sadly, zero hours of work leads to zero dollars of money, so that's no good.

Let me know when you've diagnosed me properly, 'kay?
posted by Betty at 2:07 PM [0 comments]

 
Yeah, That Sounds Like Me. Think I'll Go And Flop on the Sofa Now.


You are a Ragdoll! You are known for your laid
back attitude. You are the ultimate in
low-maintenance. You'd rather hang out around
the house all day than seek adventure.


What breed of cat are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
posted by Betty at 1:58 PM [0 comments]

 
Want Some Sci-Fi, Little Viewer? The First Nine Minutes Are Free!

This is pretty cool: The first nine minutes of Serenity are available to view for free online. So if you're trying to decide whether you want to go and see the movie or not, well, now you can sample before you buy! (Note: Yes, it does get much less exposition-y as it goes on. Trust me.)
posted by Betty at 8:28 PM [0 comments]

 
Kitten Pics!

A co-worker of mine took a couple of pictures while I had Vir-kitty at the office yesterday. So, here's me giving the little guy his bottle:



And a close-up on him, 'cause he's way more cute than I am.



Awww!
posted by Betty at 5:50 PM [0 comments]

 
DVDs Just Show Up in My Mailbox! I Like This System!

I just signed up for a two-week free trial at Netflix, and I can't for the life of me now think why I hadn't done so before. Well, no, actually, I think I know the reason: I've tended to associate them with movie rentals, and I almost never rent movies. Once I suddenly realized that they have a huge catalog of TV series, as well, I was totally there. I'm thinking this will help a great deal in acting on my recent reluctant conclusion that it's really, really stupid for me to just buy everything I'm remotely interested in on DVD. I mean, I've purchased quite a few shows that, yes, I really want to have in my collection and will doubtless watch more than once, but I've also accumulated a ton of discs that, realistically, I'll probably never play again. And paying $17.99 a month sure as hell beats buying a boxed set of something every month, at as much as fifty or even a hundred dollars a pop. Yay, me, for being smart! Finally.

So far, I've season one of The Office, a British comedy whose humor is so low-key it's practically non-existent, but which proved oddly addictive, nevertheless. And I'm working my way through season one of The Sopranos, a show that's gotten such good press that I've been meaning to check it out for ages. I've seen four episodes of that so far, and while I can't say that it's got me hooked or anything, I am very definitely liking it. Great acting, the promise of some interesting unfolding plot developments, and a main character who is, amazingly, both utterly sympathetic and deeply appalling. Pretty cool. Oddly, though, my biggest emotional reaction to it so far has been a surprisingly intense feeling of homesickness brought on by the opening credits. Dude, I hadn't even thought I still missed New Jersey, and a feeling of nostalgia in that particular context is just... disturbing.

Anyway, next up is more Sopranos, followed by some South Park. Apparently, I am in the mood for violent and vulgar.
posted by Betty at 7:22 PM [0 comments]

 
'Tis the Season?

October the freakin' third, and the supermarket has Christmas cards and wrapping paper on display by the register.

This madness has got to stop.
posted by Betty at 7:36 PM [0 comments]

 
Brief Kitten Update

Little Vir Catto's eyes are finally open. Mostly. He's really starting to become insanely cute.
posted by Betty at 4:31 PM [0 comments]

 
Hard = Difficult

Aargh. I have come to the conclusion that I desperately need a bigger hard drive. Or a second hard drive. Or, basically, just more hard drive space. And I suppose I could get one... But that would involve admitting that I have no freaking clue how to install a hard drive, and that I am, in fact, deeply nervous about anything that involves opening up my computer, because I am utterly, utterly incompetent with hardware of any kind, whether electronic, automotive, household repair, whatever. And asking for help installing a hard drive will completely ruin all my geek cred. *sniff*

I suspect I also need to replace my CD drive, because it keeps crashing my PC when I try to burn discs. Which is one of the reasons I'm noticing that I really need a new hard drive, since I can't even get any of this crap off of it. Sigh.
posted by Betty at 11:40 PM [0 comments]